06/ 03/ 2008
by Amy Cates
You might consider an OSHA inspection the safety equivalent of a financial audit, which, as any small business owner knows, can be your worst nightmare come true. The U.S. government established the Occupational Safety and Health Administration to regulate health and safety conditions for all employers, and the OSHA inspection helps ensure that your company, your products and, above all, your employees maintain the highest safety standards.
OSHA inspections help ensure that workers are safe and healthy, which leads to:
- Lower workers' compensation insurance costs
- Reduced medical expenditures
- Smaller expenditures for return-to-work programs
- Fewer faulty products
- Lower costs for job accommodations for injured workers
- Less money spent on overtime benefits
"If an employer is doing whatever they need to do to protect workers, they are meeting their moral, as well as their legal, obligation," explains Bill Taylor, vice president of Cary, N.C.-based CTJ Safety Associates. "The OSHA inspection shows a good-faith effort and may help foster goodwill, which can help keep penalties to a minimum."
Taylor offers these tips that will help employers prepare for, endure and follow-up with an OSHA inspection:
Before the Inspection
- Do what is necessary to protect workers and compliance will take care of itself. Remember that OSHA law mandates only the minimum requirements.
- Determine which required written programs you should have and develop or purchase them. These may include lockout/tagout, hearing conservation and confined space entry.
- Ensure all records (for example, training and inspection) are well organized and accessible.
- Develop a plan for an OSHA visit, and make sure employees understand what they should and should not do if they encounter the compliance officer.
During the Inspection
- Verify identity of the compliance officers by checking photo IDs.
- Be courteous and professional. OSHA inspectors are law enforcement officers, so treat them as such.
- Answer all questions as truthfully as possible, and try to provide whatever they ask for.
- Do not volunteer anything.
- Have someone accompany the compliance officers at all times.
- Do not argue with the compliance officers. Request an informal conference, at which time you can offer any necessary explanation or defense.
- Employers have a right to require a warrant, but this is not recommended. Not only will it establish ill will, it will likely send a sign to the inspector that you're not ready.
After the Inspection
- Don't wait for citations to correct violations. Be proactive.
- Everything is negotiable. Don't be shy about requesting extensions of abatement dates or a reduction of penalties.
- Avoid repeat violations. Fix it once, and make sure it stays fixed.
Small employers have access to a special set of benefits, like free on-site consultation, interactive computer software and easy-to-understand guides for specialized OSHA standards. To learn more, visit osha.gov/dcsp/smallbusiness.
